CHISUMBANJE Ethanol Plant has become a battlefield for politicians seeking political mileage, Parliament was told yesterday. SENIOR PARLIAMENTARY REPORTER
Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara said the government was now converting the project from a build operate and transfer into a joint venture between the private player and the government to stop political bickering that had blighted the success of the project.
The DPM was responding to a question in the House of Assembly by Kwekwe Central MP Blessing Chebundo on progress made by the inter-ministerial committee on the $600 million project.
He said those who had been displaced by the project must be given compensation.
“One of the major problems has been politics where parties think they are going to unlock political capital from the project and get votes. But that has been solved by the inclusion of all political parties in the project to minimise political bickering,” Mutambara said.
“All those who were displaced by the project must be given agricultural land and they must be allowed to be commercial farmers feeding into Chisumbanje,” he said. Mutambara castigated the police and Chisumbanje investors who victimised locals saying they behaved like the Rhodesian forces.
“There have been problems where people were beaten, cattle poisoned — and this attitude by the police and investors must end as it is illegal,” he said.
The DPM took a dig on a district administrator (DA) he said defied Cabinet instructions and banned meetings by the District Ethanol Plant Implementation Committee, saying his insubordination had been fuelled by political warlords who wanted chaos.
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Mutambara said he had ordered Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo to discipline the DA and failure to do that would mean he would take disciplinary action against Chombo as his immediate boss.
He said there would be five percent mandatory blending of fuel with ethanol, which meant it was now illegal to have fuel without the five percent blending, which would be upped to 15% by 2015.
